Tesla Rout Extends to Fourth Day, Longest Streak Since March

The electric-vehicle maker’s ongoing rout came as U.S. tech stocks fell for a second day. Thursday’s plunge sent the Nasdaq 100 Stock Index tumbling 5.2%, its biggest decline since March 16. That erased about $730 billion of value from the high-flying benchmark, which prior to Thursday’s decline had gained 78% from its March lows.

The index had previously gained in 11 of 13 sessions, hitting fresh records almost daily. Tesla had added nearly 500% this year through Monday’s close.

Apple Inc. fell 3% premarket on Friday, Amazon.com Inc. lost 1.6%, Microsoft Corp. slid 1.1%, Alphabet Inc. was down 1%, Facebook Inc. fell 2% and Netflix Inc. lost 2.4%.

Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives defended the sector, saying tech stocks could still have another 20% to 25% to run. Any weakness is an opportunity to buy “secular growth stories in cloud, cyber security, and tech stalwart FAANG names," especially Apple and Microsoft, he said.

While Thursday’s “massive sell off will cause some white knuckles on the Street as fears of a tech bubble and stretched valuations become the talk of the town, we continue to believe the secular growth themes around the tech sector are unprecedented with the Covid backdrop accelerating growth stories by 1-2 years in some cases," Ives wrote in a note.

This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text.